By E. Graydon Carter

Old habits die hard. After 26 months in prison, Jean Harris, convicted in 1981 of murdering Scarsdale Diet Doctor Herman Tarnower, still dresses up for visitors in a white blouse and a single strand of pearls. "I stick out like a sore thumb," says Harris, whose lawyer last week filed a motion for a new trial. She hopes to prove that she was mentally incompetent during some of the proceedings. "I did not murder Hy [Tarnower]," insists Harris. "There is a difference between murdering and killing. It was a tragic accident." It will be another two months before the Westchester County court decides whether a new trial is warranted. Meanwhile, life in prison continues for Harris, who celebrated her 60th birthday over the weekend. Now living in a special house with private rooms at New York's Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the former headmistress of Virginia's fashionable Madeira School for girls spends her mornings making quilts or writing, her afternoons working with expectant mothers. Even the prospect of eventual freedom holds no great joy. "I'm like a Pilgrim woman captured by Indians," says Harris, "who, when she is returned, belongs to neither world."

Looking as fresh as if she had just completed an afternoon stroll, Home-Town Favorite Joan Benoit, 25, glided across the finish line of the 87th Boston Marathon in the time of 2:22:42. That was almost three minutes faster than the previous women's record for the distance, held jointly by New Zealand's Allison Roe and Norway's Crete Waitz. Incredibly, Benoit finished less than 14 minutes after the men's winner, Greg Meyer, 27, who crushed his own competition with a time of 2:09. Said Women's Runner-Up Jacqueline Gareau of Canada: "The 2:20 marathon is the next mark for women now. We're getting nearer and nearer the men."

With a rosy flush of expectancy warming her cheeks, Queen Nur, 31, the American-born wife of Jordan's King Hussein, 47, has continued to fulfill her state commitments throughout the final six months of her pregnancy. The new royal baby, expected this week, will be the couple's third: they have two sons, Prince Hamzah, 3, and Prince Hashem, 22 months. Pregnancy, it appears, seems to suit the former Lisa Halaby almost as much as queenship does.

She came. She wore. She conquered. Triumphantly, Diana, Princess of Wales, 21, turned the four-week, 15,000-mile royal tour of Australia into one long fashion show-cum-mixer. Last week, with plenty of fresh outfits at the ready, Diana, with Prince Charles, 34, and ten-month-old Prince William, proceeded to New Zealand, but not before the princess gave Australia a little something to remember her by. At a royal ball at Melbourne's Hilton hotel, she stopped conversation dead by making her entrance in a shimmery, ice-gray gown cut daringly deep across one shoulder. At Auckland's Eden Park, Diana elicited squeals of delight from 35,000 schoolchildren when, with three Maori teenagers, she joined in the hongi, the traditional Polynesian greeting of pressing noses. Prince Charles, meanwhile, was nearly relegated to the role of spear chucker. A native warrior thrust a ceremonial spear at him and asked if he came in peace. The prince quickly replied that he had.

--By E. Graydon Carter This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.